Empty
by bellrie
Summary: Where Sasuke is amused and Sasuke is annoyed. It's her birthday, after all. Oneshot.


**Empty**

**Disclaimer: I do ****not**** own any part of Naruto.**

Sakura blinked. She couldn't quite take in the situation in front of her. She _was _a Genin, but months and months of training could not have possibly prepared her for this mind-blowing scene in front of her. What should she do? What was happening before her defied all the laws of nature, because –

Sasuke was giving her a present. _Sasuke_.

She blinked a few more times to make sure she wasn't dreaming, and muttered "Kai," under her breath just to make sure she wasn't in some sort of ridiculous genjutsu. It seemed that the arrogant black-haired Uchiha in front of her noticed, because he smirked and threw the black box at her and swiftly turned away, not even waiting to see if she caught it.

But she caught it, of course, albeit with her mouth gaping open in an unseemly fashion and her face feeling unnaturally warm at the encounter. She looked at the strange present, unable to take in its existence, then looked up again at the receding figure in the distance.

"T-thanks, Sasuke-kun!"

He didn't wave a hand or even react to her gratitude. Sakura smiled, almost fondly. He had always been such a marvel. While Naruto danced about her, closely scrutinising her expression to see if she liked his present, Sasuke's expression was completely blank. He left without even a second glance or a cordial "Happy birthday," to accompany the gift, or even to pause to gauge her reaction. It was like he didn't even _care_.

Did he even _care _about her reaction? Sakura stood there for a moment, marveling at the way he never failed to surprise her even in the strangest of ways. Then she shook her head. She had to get home for her birthday celebration, and her parents wouldn't be particularly pleased if she were late. She'd specifically told them that she would be on time, after all.

She waved goodbye to Kakashi-sensei and walked back with Naruto, blocking out his incessant chatter.

"Did you see my awesome flying kick just now? It was just…"

Sakura wasn't listening to a word. She hugged the mysterious black box to herself and wondered, not for the first time in the last ten minutes, what on earth Sasuke could have gotten her. To be honest, she was a little overwhelmed. Didn't this mean that Sasuke liked her? He'd never gotten anyone a present before, at least not in her memory. Had he ever?

Naruto's loud voice tore her from her reverie. She turned around, slightly startled. She hadn't noticed that he hadn't been walking behind her for a while. "Bye, Sakura-chan! Happy birthday!" He shouted, his trademark grin so wide it almost reached his cheeks.

She smiled a little and waved back cheerfully, while Inner Sakura rejoiced at him _finally _departing. Sakura waited till he disappeared in the distance before she sat down, hard, on the bench, and stared at the present in her lap.

This was it. It was her turning point. It would be in all her biographies of her wonderful marriage to her prince and she would recount dreamily about how it all started with a beautiful black box. She reached for the cover, and almost lifted it before –

"Sakuraaaaaa!"

She looked up, annoyed, only to see her favourite nemesis strolling down the path hand in hand with the Guy Rated Most Deficient In Fashion Sense in Konoha, Rock Lee. She groaned inwardly, for the benefit of Lee. She actually _did _enjoy his company quite a bit, but it was a completely different matter for Ino.

"Hi, Lee-san!" she grinned widely, "And Ino-pig." she added smugly. Ino would _not _be pleased at the surprising turn of events in her favour.

"Happy birthday, Sakura-san! How was your training?"

She exchanged several pleasantries with him before turning to Ino. "Ino-pig, guess what?"

The blonde-haired girl narrowed her eyes in apprehension. She never did know what Sakura was up to, but it certainly seemed that something had happened.

"What, your forehead grew another two inches?"

Sakura bristled slightly at this but ignored her. "Sasuke gave _me _a present."

She enjoyed watching Ino's jaw drop. She was certain that even Lee did have an expression of surprise on his face, and she laughed sadistically at how they connected the dots and pointed at the box in her lap.

"I-is that it?" Ino asked in disbelief.

Sakura nodded, feeling child-like excitement at opening the gift.

Lee's eyebrows, if possible, raised even higher. He gaped disbelievingly at the box and took Sakura by the shoulders.

"You have the spirit of youth in you! But I am curious to know what is in the box, so open it while the spirit of youth is still within you!"

Ino wrung her hands, obviously envious. "Just open it, Forehead Girl."

It was possibly the high-spiritedness of the situation, or perhaps merely Sakura's ecstasy at besting her rival once more, for she finally decided to open the box in front of such an unlikely duo, and she tore open the cover in her haste…

To reveal an empty box.

There was a stunned silence. Sakura even poked her finger in the box to check again. Lee leaned over to get a better look. A slow smirk formed on Ino's face.

Ironically, the first sound to break the silence was Ino's loud chortling. "It's e-e-e-mpty!"  
>She managed to say in between bursts of laughter, practically rolling around on the floor, holding her sides.<p>

The next of Sakura's humiliation was Lee's confusion. "Sakura, is this a joke?"

She didn't speak. Somewhere in her, something burned. Not just her cheeks, which were indeed bright red. Inner Sakura swore that she would get her revenge. Sasuke an avenger? She'd show him.

She stood up, leaving the box on the bench. Her fists were clenched. She would be the talk of the town before the end of the day, she knew, and no amount of appealing to Ino's non-existent conscience would help.

Lee hung back, confused. He didn't quite understand what just took place, had it been Sakura's version of a joke? He glanced over at Ino and wondered why she found it so amusing. He shrugged. He had to get back to training, not focus on the strange processes that took place in the female mind.

One thousand sit-ups sounded good.

He made his way purposefully to the training grounds, leaving behind a highly amused Ino who was still rolling around with laughter. _She's so full of the spirit of youth_, thought Lee.

The next day at training, Kakashi realised that Sakura was unusually quiet. Not only that, she had been shooting Sasuke death glares throughout the training, which meant that she was completely not focused. To be fair, Sasuke himself had been returning her glances with a particularly annoying smirk which Kakashi found hard to digest even though he wasn't the receiving party.

He could only imagine Sakura's fury, which was why he had assigned them to tree-punching. And Sakura had excelled particularly in this aspect, bashing the poor tree to a stump although she was worn out from the exertion, she moved on so quickly to the next tree that Kakashi had to step in and stop her.

"Sakura, are you okay?" He asked, shifting his copy of Icha Icha slightly to observe her facial expressions.

She smiled cheerfully and nodded. _Liar_, thought Kakashi. He rolled his eyes to himself and turned back to his literature.

He didn't miss her side-long glares at Sasuke throughout the exercise. He sighed. He had to intervene somehow, or the quarrel would be extended to forever. Then he thought of a plan.

"Lunch," he called out.

He watched the pair warily before deciding to go along with his plan anyway. "After break, two of you will duel."

He ignored Naruto's excited shouts and promises to "beat Sasuke up!" and smirked a little under his mask.

"Sasuke against Sakura. No arguments."

There weren't any, and lunch was eaten quietly, the tension between the two radiating furiously and Naruto staring at the two of them in bewilderment.

Sakura was thinking, hard. A slow smile crept over her face and even Kakashi quaked a little at that look; Sakura could be rather frightening at times.

Sasuke was expressionless.

The sun carefully crawled up to its peak, shining warmly down on the four shinobi. A cloud drifted past and for a moment they were in the shade. Then it passed, and Kakashi muttered, "Break's over."

A kunai flew at Sasuke so quickly that Naruto yelped in fright. There was a small _poof_ where Sasuke had been and a log fell harmlessly to the ground.

Kakashi smiled humorlessly. They _were _really fighting.

Sakura leapt up and started running to cover, easily dodging three kunais that sliced through the air towards her. She spun about and pinpointed his position, then jumped and disappeared in the bushes.

Sasuke bounded down from his hiding place in the treetops and smirked. His dark eyes flashed red and _saw_.

Too late.

Sakura flew out from above and arced downwards with a kunai. He barely managed to parry her blow off, surprised by her strength and intensity. She slashed forward again and swiftly dodged his counter-attack. They danced about each other, turning into a whirl of black and pink, moving so quickly that Naruto wasn't quite able to keep up.

"Kakashi-sensei, Sakura's really improv-"

Sasuke faked a left, and Sakura dodged, only to freeze as she felt the cold steel of a kunai pressing to her neck. Blood oozed out, and her cerulean eyes widened. He smirked and spoke without turning to Kakashi.

"I've won."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at his words as Sakura's doppelganger vanished into smoke and the real Sakura flashed her kunai out and pressed it to his throat.

Hard.

He saw her forehead creased in fury, panting hard and those green eyes burning with anger. Her left arm, drawn backward. He glared at her in disbelief, almost daring her to punch him. Both furious.

But when she dropped her arm and the kunai, the tension disappeard. She lowered her head so he couldn't see the disappointment in her eyes and she returned the kunai swiftly to her pouch before raising her head high and walking away.

Somehow the view of her back turning away from him left an unfamiliar lump in his throat. The feeling was not pleasant.

Throughout the rest of training, he tried to figure out a name for this emotion while observing her expressions. She did not look at him even once and her head was almost perpetually lowered, almost as if in shame. She carried out the exercises mutedly, not speaking to Naruto or Kakashi except in one-worded sentences.

Then he realised. It was guilt. The feeling was hardly comfortable, and he decided to do something about it.

After training, he took her aside and they walked back together in muted silence. She did nott talk, and he found it hard to speak.

When he did, he realisedwith a jolt at how tentative he sounded and contrived to sound harsher.

"It was your birthday yesterday?"

She looked up in annoyance and disbelief at his sheer _cheek_, but decided against it. So she played the cool.

"Uh-huh."

"I gave you this box, right?"

Sakura narrowed her eyes. She wasn't quite sure where this conversation was heading, but went along anyway.

"Yeah."

He found it hard to place the words. "I just realised that I didn't put the present in."

Sasuke felt her stiffen. "Huh. Would you believe it, I didn't even realise."

She was bitter, he grasped. He had to resolve it quickly. Now.

He stopped abruptly in front of a street lamp, the path overseeing the village and the star-studded expanse of dark sky above.

He didn't want to speak, so he dangled it in front of her face.

The bracelet caught the light of the street lamp and it shone, brightly. It was simple and plain, a silver chain ending off with the trademark red and white fan.

Sakura just looked at it.

He stared at her.

"Do you like it?"

"Is this for real?" She murmured, ignoring his question, holding up her hands to poke the Uchiha insignia as if to confirm it were real.

He chuckled.

"Yeah, it is."

She was tempted to hug him there and then, but then haughtily snatched the bracelet from his grasp and hid her smile.

"Thank you."

Sasuke shrugged and they continued walking up the path together in quiet silence. The tension is gone.

They smiled at this together, and continued on, Sakura looking up at the sky and feeling like the luckiest girl alive and Sasuke feeling relieved because things are finally back to normal.

"Hey, Sasuke-kun," she murmured, glancing up at the night sky and tightly clutching the bracelet in her grip.

"Hn."

"So when _are _you going to say happy birthday to me?"

He smirked.

"Don't get your hopes up."

A/N: Hi! Hope you enjoyed this really random fic I came up with one day! Have to rush off for something or the other again, remember to review 'cause it'll totally make my day! 3

!fallingback


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